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Two big names, and two very ambivalent responses to persistent media enquiries. I am referring to Messrs Todd Greenberg and Ricky Stuart.
These are two high profile rugby league personalities who are highly skilled at telling their inquisitors what they want, and not necessarily what the pen, notebook and microphone brigade wants to know.
Let us examine Greenberg first-up.
In the early rounds of 2013, the Ben Barba drama exploded at Canterbury as though the game had stepped on a land mine.
Here was the standout player of 2012 – the Dally M winner – in all sorts of trouble: gambling and alcohol problems galore.
And he didn’t want to play for any team, let alone his beloved Bulldogs.
There had been a bust-up with his beloved wife, Ainslie. Domestic violence Mr Greenberg? No answer, deflection.
The question was asked again, several times. No answer from Mr Greenberg, just more deflection.
The-then Bulldogs CEO kept harping on about alcohol and gambling problems seriously affecting his star fullback. He would be stood down indefinitely, counselling would happen, he might return sometime this season, or maybe the next. The Bulldogs were all about the player’s welfare, said Todd Greenberg.
But was there domestic violence Mr G? Yet another deflection by the man who would eventually leave the Bulldogs and take up the plum position as Head of League, NRL.
I understand the NRL’s integrity unit is looking hard at this issue as you read this. Yes, this ‘hard look’ has been triggered by publication of a newspaper photo a woman’s bleeding lip – the woman is supposedly Ainslie Barba.
Pesky media. Damn you again…..
May I say straight up here that I believe Todd Greenberg is the best official in the NRL.
I hope that one day he runs the entire joint.
But I have major qualms about this Bulldogs/Barba business. Greenberg was asked directly, many times, if domestic violence was an issue with the club’s decision to stand Ben Barba down. He did not answer.
To me, that is deceitful, and not befitting a (now) very senior officer of the National Rugby League. It cannot help Todd Greenberg’s reputation if it eventually transpires that Barba and his wife’s separation was due in any way to domestic violence.
And now we will look at Mr Ricky Stuart.
After Parra’s surprise win over St George-Illawarra on Monday night, Stuart was quizzed about rumours he would be coaching the Canberra Raiders next year.
He did not answer, one way or another.
He insisted that such questions should be asked at the end of the season and that the media present should be concentrating on the Eels and their gritty win over St George-Illawarra.
I would have thought that a head coach coming to the end of year one of a three-year contract would have ‘sprayed’ the media people, stressing that he had two – maybe more – seasons to go at his current club.
Nup. You will never be any good at poker, Ricky.
See you at Canberra, or maybe even somewhere else next year.
And if you want the media people to believe in you, even for a nano-second, I’d recommend you hit them with a semblance of the truth.
Once would be a very good start.
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